Liberty revised: Rebirth of the Know-Nothings

My father came to this country in 1947…the year before I was born.

Dad had minimal English and began his new life in New York shoveling coal on the Staten Island Ferry.

He was a hard worker and over time his English became functional. He gained citizenship and got a skilled labor job, repairing heavy oil burners. It was what he did for the rest of his work life and he did it well.

As their child, I always knew my parents weren’t working for themselves. They did what has always made America both different and great. They committed themselves to the next generation – to the future. I understood my obligation in that formula.

My father was a patriot to his adopted nation. He was grateful to and loved a country that opened its doors and allowed him the opportunity to be as free and equal as any other American.

While dad was not born in this country, I was…eleven months after the boat. His life and the chance the United States gave to him – to our family – has stayed with me all my life. Being an immigrant family in the U.S. was not without struggle. Yet, it gave a chance to work hard toward betterment both personally and for the nation.

This morning when I heard that two Senators, one from Arkansas the other from Georgia, were cosponsoring a bill to halve legal immigration and favor the elites in coming to this nation, I thought back to a conversation I had at the end of the 1980’s. It was with a citizen of a state that historically had low immigration rates. He was from a (self-described) old and respected family. It was a time when NY Governor Mario Cuomo was being spoken of as a possible presidential candidate. The young man’s words were unforgettable to me. He looked me in the eye and spoke slowly and clearly: “I don’t think people in my part of the country will ever vote for someone whose name they cannot pronounce.”

That was not a reflection of the America I have loved and I do not believe that it is a reflection of the good people in any part of this country. However, it is an opinion that challenges America’s greatness at its root. It must be addressed whenever it rears its head.

This afternoon, from the White House press podium, the words of Emma Lazarus were attempted to be made meaningless. A representative of our President (as he spoke of the President’s backing of the new bill) reflected the spirit of the mid 1800’s anti-immigrant Native American Party, later renamed American Party, but forever remembered in American history as the Know-Nothings

The Know-Nothings were built upon fear of German and Irish immigrants and the growth of a Catholic voting bloc. The United States of America survived that and, with the help of people of good will, will survive this time of calculated division.

As long as America remains great, the words of Emma Lazarus’ The New Colossus, enshrined inside Lady Liberty, will always have meaning and define us…

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

My family was also welcomed by Lady Liberty’s outstretched arm. It’s so discouraging to see the contributions and patriotism of those who have had to earn their place in this great nation through sweat, hardship and selflessness so denigrated by this Whitehouse and their xenophobic base who see patriotism as a birthright, be it earned or not. Most Americans who support these actions need not look much further than a generation or two to find immigrant ancestors whose struggles enabled their citizenship. They should reflect on their past and walk a day in the shoes of those less fortunate.

About five years ago, I was talking to a doctor in Mexico City at a time our nation was having a problem. He said, “This is just a small problem. You have freedom and democracy and you welcome people to make a better life. That makes you unique and respected.” Those who tell us we’re being used by Europe, Australia, Mexico and other historic friends are working a game for self-benefit not unlike P.T. Barnum (https://www.bindingvalues.org/2017/01/26/this-way-to-the-egress/) Lady Liberty put definition to a path that gave us success for many decades. For this nation and for ourselves, we shouldn’t turn away.

Diversity has been an essential part of this nation’s greatness. A unified belief in the importance of democratic decision-making and a fact-based press are other parts. Those are under stress – and require our defense. As Tim Duggan, the author of On Tranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century wrote, Germany was a democracy until it wasn’t. https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-Twentieth-Century/dp/0804190119

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About this blog

Before the 2016 Clinton-Trump Presidential election, the most important election in my lifetime was the 2002 Georgia Senatorial election. It set the path for our decaying politics. It assaulted the values that had truly made and kept America great. It set a pattern for today.

In that election, Senator Max Cleland was challenged by Saxby Chambliss. Chambliss was far behind as election day came close. He had nothing to lose and did something that in the past would have been attacked as despicable and, indeed, contrary to American values. He attacked Senator Cleland as weak on defense. The tool he used was a Cleland vote on amending the Chemical Weapons Treaty. That amendment passed 56-44 with Cleland being on the same side as Senator Bill Frist, then head of the Senate committee that picked Chambliss to run against Cleland. Chambliss accused Cleland of “breaking his oath to protect and defend the Constitution”.

Well, we’re used to politicians twisting the truth, so why was this a step toward changing American values?

Max Cleland was a former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. At the age of 25, while in Viet Nam as a Captain in the U.S. Army, Max Cleland lost both his legs and one arm in service to his nation. To attack such a man as anything other than a patriot would have been unthinkable before that 2002 election.

Chambliss reversed the polls, won the election and changed our politics to this day. Others saw what he had done and learned. The new formula was simple and profoundly cynical: find a strength in your opponent and transform it to a weakness.

The formula has been repeated over and over ever since. Most recently, we have seen it in our 2016 election where a candidate who served (with good popularity) as Senator and Secretary of State has been subjected to years of Congressional hearings, as she emerged as a strong candidate for President.

The evolving result has been a loss of common national values.

The Republican and Democratic tribes do not do the business of the nation. They do not pass budgets. They do not stand unified at the water’s edge against nations that would do us harm. They focus on partisan interest and the destruction of each other.

When they fail, they do not apologize and seriously commit to work to the common good. They say citizens want them to be stronger in pushing their philosophies. They claim mandate, rather than the reality that citizens are limited by the rules they have set to a binary choice.

In truth, their philosophies are meaningless to most Americans. They are too often used to generate anger with ideas as a tagline.

Citizens simply want America to work…to bring us jobs and stability. We want people who will talk to each other, listen and find – or create – common ground. That is leadership in a democracy – if we want to keep it.

This introduction is to a new blog dedicated to values. It is about people who put themselves second to others. It is about a future worth having. It will include stories about heroes I and others have met or observed, a little history and, perhaps, a few thoughts